New Summer SFF featuring MA Carrick, Elijah Chan, Seth Hayden and more
There’s nothing like a summer reading challenge to get you in the proper mindset for the season. Many of us grew up eating personal pizzas as a reward for reading a certain number of books; These days, my kids get coupons for ice cream and a drive-in movie theater for their efforts. No matter what the incentive, let’s put that energy into compiling this month’s SFF books. Your options include a graphic novel about female knights, Rapunzel (with amnesia and anthropomorphic hair) and Cinderella (in 1940s Hong Kong), Spanish explorers meeting the Fae on the high seas, and a futuristic cli-fi tale inspired by Portuguese folklore. Also, don’t miss August Clark Felicity Complex and HG Parry’s The witch under the dreaming wood From our most anticipated list of 2026.
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Fiona Marchbanks, goddesses of knights
(Oni Press, July 7)
I grew up with Tamora Pierce’s Lady Knights and particularly love the inter-generational guidance in her Protector of the Small series – the same energy that is present in Fiona Marchbank’s Oni Press collection of delightful webcomics. Seraphina is one of the most talented female knights in the realm, but she is not as good at showboating in tournaments as her rival Ethelburga and prefers to keep to herself. George is a clumsy common man who is too young to take risks… until Seraphina’s wife (and protector) pressures him to train the girl in the ways of the sword. We love a prickly master and a mean disciple!
John Tierney, wife of sorrow
(Flatiron Books, July 14)
In this post-industrial cli-fi tale inspired by Portuguese folklore, Alixene’s village is destroyed by a storm and her older sisters are married off to magical husbands: the King of the Wind, the King of the Sea, and the King of Sorrow. Despite barely remembering her sisters, when Alixen receives a grave message from a toad, she sets out to rescue her favorite sister, Dores, from the kingdom of sorrow. With the help of trickster siblings Marques Boaventura and Marquessa Jinx, she will need both luck and bad luck to break the unbreakable curses and reunite her family.
MA Carrick, eye of leviathan
(Orbit Books, July 14)
An alternate-history Spanish Golden Age is a human-world mirror to the fairy realm in MA Carrick’s latest, which explores the ripple effects of the changing swap. Long ago, Estevan, a human, escaped from the Sea Beyond of Fae for other worlds, taking the place of a young girl. But when Spanish explorers cross into the Sea Beyond, the hungry girl – the human whose life Estevan stole – becomes their cautious ally, wanting to travel back with them but horrified by the atrocities they have committed. Now the two must find each other again through their terrible pact to save their adopted homes and discover their respective goals. And did we mention that MA Carrick is the pseudonym of writing duo Mary Brennan and Alec Helms? The reason for reading is double.
Seth Hayden, zero unit
(Tordo.com publication, July 21)
Seth Hayden concludes the Volatile Memory duology with this sequel novel following the digital consciousness discovered in the scavenger Viola and her beloved sable, AI Mask. Now that Viola has donned an off-the-grid mask and become the eponymous “Void Entity”, the two seek to take down the dystopian corporation known as Visorforge. But their hack attempt is interrupted by the Edenic Order, a radical eco-resistance organization led by plant/human hybrids. With the Order offering competing promises to each of the two minds in one body, Viola and Sable may not be able to continue co-exist until they find a new way that combines revenge with revolution.
andrea ames, a tangled spell
(Erevon Books, July 28)
Rapunzel has recently received several clever new retellings, including Tia Tashiro’s “What does hair grow for?“Theodora Goss”parsley girl“And your humble list of curators”Parsley Girl, Parsley Girl, Lay Down Your Trichobezoar” Andrea Ames’s novel offers an intriguing new perspective through a young woman named Netta who understands her life only in fragments. She has magical red hair, impossibly long and full of strength and ideas; The tower, his home filled with books whose secrets are closed to him; And his mother, buried in her life’s work on her magic book. But when her mother disappears, Netta must find a way out of the tower and decide which strangers she can trust – swindlers, booksellers, magicians – as she uncovers the secrets hiding the truth of her life.
Elizabeth Lim, Fishbone Cinderella
(Del Rey, July 28)
YA author Elizabeth Lim makes her adult debut with a historical fantasy Inspired by the Chinese version of CinderellaWhere magical fish bones take the place of a fairy godmother. The multi-generational story spans dual time periods: in occupied Hong Kong in the 1940s, young Ha Yut Ying saves her life through the power of invisibility, but also suffers as an unwanted stepchild to her father and his second wife, is forced to work in a shoe factory and falls in love with the heir to a soy milk empire. Decades later, in 1960s San Francisco, Yut Ying can’t stop flickering in and out of reality. Her adult daughter Marigold rushes back to Hong Kong to uncover the truth behind the family curse through a missing fishbone bracelet.
Jessie Aragon, demon star
(DAW, July 28)
a selected narrative of dune meeting of gideon ninth-esque exorcism at the beginning of this mystical science fantasy set in a world full of gods and monsters. Former Knight Candidate Ysira Nyctis was to be sacrificed as a human, but was saved thanks to the healing powers of a demon. Now a mercenary, she finds fate on her side when her son Neri is chosen for demonic possession – and if she saves him, she’ll stand to lose millions. His best chance and most unexpected ally is Brother Jacen Kheris, once a talented exorcist in the Church of the Black Sun and now an aimless drug addict after the death of his apprentice. Their efforts to regain control of their world will take them far from the demon-infested valleys to a satellite where they will battle human cultists and the gods themselves.
Eliza Chan, port of hungry ghosts
(Orbit Books, July 28)
still being careful buffy Reboot not picking up? Scratch the monster-hunter itch with this new series from Eliza Chan based in 1850s Hong Kong. As the eldest daughter of the demon-hunting Au clan, Kiamling faces the pressure of continuing to protect her family from the town, while fighting the demons of Cantonese folklore. But a new breed of evil has infected the town, deriving its powers from unfamiliar British legends – and one of them has taken away Knuckles, his beloved grandmother and mentor. Kiamling must form his own Scooby gang which includes his younger sister Jingling (hiding her own family secrets), his childhood sweetheart turned pirate Hoi Gor, and a civil servant named Archie. It feels fantastic.
